Monday, August 20, 2012

My daughter trailed along with me to the quilt shop a couple weeks ago when I went to pick out the binding for her wedding quilt. We happened upon a sale (30% off - woo hoo!) so I suggested a few fabrics to make a set of pillowcases to go along with the aforementioned quilt. She said she would pick some, but only if I let her do the sewing. Umm, sure - and in my mind, I was thinking "like that's going to happen"! Moving forward, she settled upon these two prints from Lucy's Crab Shack, which is a very cute line. She is being a bit of a stinker in selecting the bicycles, however, because her sweet fiancee is leery of bikes. A few years back, he had a bad crash while riding his bike and he ended up breaking his femur - ouch!

Me: Should you really pick the bikes? Isn't that kind of mean?

Her: Yup! (evil grin!)

Me: You don't always have to be like me, you know

Her: Yup!

Poor guy has a long life ahead of him, I'm thinking....

Oh, and you can probably guess, she didn't get around to sewing them, which is okay by me as I quite like making pillowcases. I like how I can get a couple fabrics together, do a bit of cutting, sewing, and pressing and having something nice AND useful to show for less than an hour of work. I don't remember where I first saw the pillowcase tutorial, but it's a great method and I love how neat and tidy all the seams end up looking when I am done.

The wedding is on Friday and we are more and more ready each day. I am looking forward to having our family and friends celebrate this very happy event with us but wow, it's going to be a busy week!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Througout the summer, Deb over at A Quilter's Table has been hosting Tuesday at the Table. It's been a busy and I haven't been able to play but it just so happened that I could join in this week. Her theme for August is (in case the title doesn't give it away) herbs. We live in a condo and don't have a garden in the traditional sense, but I do have several containers of growing things on my front porch and back deck. Today when I was perusing over at Fine Cooking, I came across a recipe for Roasted Shrimp with Rosemary and Thyme. Fantastic! I happen to have both growing in one of my herb pots.

This recipe will be a keeper. It is very simple and the result is an aromatic, flavourful dish. It is super simple to throw together. I put the oven on to preheat, started my rice cooker, then assembled this dish. Thirty minutes later, supper was on the table. All present agreed it was a nice supper.

The bonus? A quick to make and quick to clean up supper lets met get to the sewing room faster!

Monday, August 13, 2012

A friend of mine is going to become a first-time grandma any day now. Back in April, she had attended the Rotary silent auction and bid on a baby quilt I had donated. She was pretty excited to think she had won it until the last minute when someone snuck in under the wire and put in a higher bid. She asked me if I would be able to make a quilt, since she missed out on that one. The mom and dad-to-be are doing baby girl's room in yellow and in an owl theme. I found some owl-type fabrics at various online shops and sent the photos to my friend - she picked a fun one!

It seemed like it might be fun to fussy cut some of the motifs from the fabric she picked and build some of Ashley'sConverging Corner blocks around them. These are the first four blocks; I finished a couple more tonight after I took this photo and am planning a quilt of twelve blocks total. Little miss is due to arrive any day now so I need to get cracking!

Every year, I have the privilege of going on a backpacking trip with some really special friends. Our all-women's hiking group have gone on some really incredible adventures. This year, however, schedules and life interefered a little so our 7-10 day trip turned into a hiking weekend. We live close to the Canadian Rockies and this weekend, our travels took us up on the Columbia Icefields, between Banff and Jasper. The views are incredible, the trails are great, and the company is just wonderful. It puts me behind on some of the sewing I want to get done, but it recharges and refreshes me inside and out!

I just need a little nap now to get caught up....then I'll be good to go!

Monday, August 6, 2012

The wedding is less than three weeks away but there is still a long way to go on this wedding quilt. I am glad, however, to report that I have the centre part of the quilt done as of tonight. There is a narrow border around the centre blocks, then a pieced four-patch outer border. Not the greatest piecing job on this one - the circles are giving me fits - but my daughter doesn't seem to care. She thinks it is very pretty and she is thrilled with the colours and fabric she chose.

It was nice having a long weekend which provided some sewing time on this quilt. I have a job I really enjoy but I have to say, it was nice having and extra day off this time around!

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Myrika, the leader of our Happiness circle at do.Good Stitches asked us for Wonky Bento Box blocks this month. The blocks are based on Quilt Dad's tutorial and the colour scheme is raspberry, light blue, lime green, and grey - so pretty. I had never made blocks like this before and as far as I can recall, this is my first foray into "improv" type piecing, so I was really excited.

I made the blocks last night - what an awesome way to spend a Friday evening after a busy week at work - it was so relaxing!

It is a long weekend here in Canada - in my province, Alberta, it is Heritage Day on Monday, so we have it off. We have a couple of things planned over the next few days but my number one goal is to make some serious progress on the wedding quilt for my daughter and her very-soon-to-be husband. It will be a nice way to spend a laid back weekend at home!

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

...being invited to join do.Good Stitches!! I am so excited to be joining the HAPPINESS circle. It is an international circle consisting of several Canadians and a few more from places like Switzerland and Australia. I had the goofiest grin on my face all day as I thought about how exciting this is!

It's been a busy couple of weeks and now it is August 1st; time to come up with something new for the blog banner! Since I last wrote, I defenced my master's (successfully!), went on a road trip to Seattle with a friend to take in a baseball game, made jam and pickles from a bounty of farmer's market delights, and dropped off my youngest daughter at the airport so she could set off on a two week adventure in Europe - all by herself! It has been a busy couple of weeks.

We are just over three weeks away from my other daughter's wedding - it's getting close! I am working away on her wedding quilt and hoping there might be some way to get it done. I also had a happy mail day:

The two fabrics on top are Laurie Wisbrun's line "Brrr". I first started seeing this in blogland a few months back and was really hoping I would get some. I love bears! And I love polar bears! I got mine (and a few coordinates to go with...) at Hawthorne Threads. They are a lovely online shop. One of my favourite things about their shop (besides the loyalty discount) is the way they have set up their fabric search function. If you find a print you like, you can click on it to order it, but you will also find colour swatches which match the colours in the print. Clicking on one of those swatches will take you to a selection of other fabrics which feature the same colour. That may be how I ended up with several coordinates which are stacked underneath my polar bears above...

I added a few more bits to my order as well:

I am trying to add small to medium tone-on-tone or prints with white elements to my stash. I am a sucker for awesome, multi-colour prints but I find them difficult to work with so I'm working on adding these smaller prints, a few at a time.

I actually have a plan for the polar bears - I think they could work up really nicely into Elizabeth Hartman's "Kitchen Windows" quilt. I envision a little fussy cutting and some cute bears peeking out of the blocks, but that will have to wait until after the wedding. No time for Christmas quilts quite yet!

Are you watching the Olympics? I have been enjoying them as time allows. I am so proud of all the athletes and their accomplishments!